Learn Fresh

Funding would support Learn Fresh projects across four categories:

1. New projects: a) Piloting the NBA Math Hoops Community League, a new program innovation that creates an intra-school competitive Math Hoops league. b) Digital development of EcoTour, a new financial and environmental literacy program that engages students in financial and environmental literacy through the lens of the live music and entertainment industries.
2. Digital development of existing program tools: including the NBA Math Hoops digital game and mobile app, and the Learn Fresh Coaches Association, our online program management platform.
3. Research projects: We are currently working with WestEd to craft a 2021 quasi-experimental study; this will serve as an intermediate step to a full-scale RCT of NBA Math Hoops across the next two school years, and will include an evaluation of both the physical and digital curriculum.
4. Scaling the Learn Fresh Fellowship for Culturally Inclusive Education, which invites educators and curriculum writers of color to create and broadly share standards-aligned curricula that authentically represent that the narratives and identities of their communities.

I’m a lifelong educator with a vision of using education to build bridges in society, and I have a particular passion for travel and the arts. After attending Harvard Graduate School of Education, I co-founded Learn Fresh, a nonprofit dedicated to leveraging students' passion for sports and entertainment to inspire their STEM and social-emotional learning through community, play, and rigorous exploration. Learn Fresh explicitly focuses on achieving equitable outcomes for girls, low-income students, and students of color. Since our founding in 2012, we have successfully developed the NBA Math Hoops program model, working with students, teachers, and education and business leaders across the country to create a robust, engaging, and uniquely effective learning model. In total, we have brought to market three education programs that have served over 350,000 students nationally in grades 3-8. Along the way, we have trained over 4,000 educators, 93% of whom serve low-income communities.

In the future, we will scale our work both in the U.S. and abroad, with a goal of reaching 3 million students annually by 2025. In the short-term, we aim to launch two new programs in 2021, and to continue scaling the Learn Fresh Fellowship for Culturally Inclusive Education. 

Learn Fresh seeks to boost engagement and achievement in STEM among low-income students and students of color. There are 4.44 million students of color in grades 4-7 in low-income communities in the U.S., representing our domestic target pool. Engagement and achievement in STEM remains low for low-income students, and proficiency in math—a useful indicator of future success in academic STEM courses—is characterized by pervasive racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps across the country, particularly in urban areas. According to the 2019 NAEP, 66 percent of eighth grade students in the U.S.—and 82 percent of low-income eighth graders—are not proficient in mathematics. Achievement gaps along racial lines are stark: While 20 percent of White eighth graders did not meet basic proficiency in math, 43 percent of Hispanic students and a massive 53 percent of Black eighth graders did not meet basic proficiency. Learn Fresh’s approach leverages students' passion for sports and entertainment to provide high-quality, culturally relevant STEM and social-emotional learning through community, play, and rigorous exploration. While Learn Fresh’s work is rooted domestically, we have begun to leverage our model abroad to address parallel inequities in education.

Learn Fresh’s primary program is NBA Math Hoops, which leverages the game of basketball and NBA/WNBA brands to engage students with fundamental math and social-emotional education through a physical and digital board game, integrated curriculum, and community program structure, all at no cost to students, teachers, or schools. The program is built upon founding partnerships with the NBA/WNBA, Hasbro, and Getty Images, and has served over 350,000 students through direct partnerships with 25 NBA and WNBA teams across 50 urban areas. Through the community-based program model, we partner with districts, Boys & Girls Clubs, and state afterschool networks help to recruit educators for program training sessions, which equip educators to implement the program directly with their students in weekly sessions over the course of the season. In each class session, students play the board game, either physically or digitally, and complete a curriculum unit. Many students also free play in out-of-school time and at-home learning. We host exciting program events and learning experiences throughout the season that supplement core programming. Learn Fresh’s other programs leverage the same program model through other sports/brands: Math Hits (baseball/MLB/math), First & 10 (football/NFL/math).

The Learn Fresh program model engages professional sports teams, schools, districts, and afterschool networks to create high-quality learning opportunities that combine game-based math learning with immersive STEM education and deep social-emotional learning. At the heart of the Math Hoops program model’s scalability and success are three unique founding partnerships: Hasbro manufactures all of our physical board games and donates them in kind to Learn Fresh, helping us to provide programming at no cost to students, teachers, or schools. The NBA, NBPA, WNBA, and WNBPA provide us with royalty-free licenses that permit us use of team and league brands, player images, and player likenesses. Getty Images provides us with a royalty-free license that allows unlimited use of photos. 

Our programs are helping change the narrative around STEM education and academic success for students of color, offering a new paradigm for culturally relevant, engaging learning, providing goal-oriented pathways to success, and publicly highlighting students' success in order to shift the narrative of their communities. We have shaped the narrative around education in the NBA by thoroughly establishing a quality standard for team community education programs: NBA Math Hoops has become the largest and only league-adopted education program in the NBA. 

We have been successful in scaling the Learn Fresh program model through a sustained focus on supporting program educators, which has allowed us to keep year-to-year retention at around 95 percent. The strength of the core game products form the backbone of the program’s impact, and deliver proven impact: Over the course of a five-year period, regular NBA Math Hoops program evaluations by the American Institutes of Research have shown consistent gains among students participating in NBA Math Hoops across major demographic groups (female, male, Black, Latino, White), as well as consistent improvement in the program’s impact each year. A 2019 third-party assessment of 4,019 students demonstrated 33 percent gains in math fluency and 18 percent improvement with higher-order math skills related to stats and data analysis among program participants, compared to 24 percent and 4 percent, respectively, for a control group of non-participants (both participants and non-participants completed their school’s standard math curriculum). A 2019 social-emotional outcomes study showed that program participants were 30 percent more likely than a control to report growth in key attributes like leadership, grit, and resilience.

In 2021, Learn Fresh will serve over 300,000 students with direct programming, primarily through our core program, NBA Math Hoops. 93 percent of existing Learn Fresh students live within low-income communities, and 78 percent of Learn Fresh students represent communities of color in the U.S. and abroad. As our most developed experience, the NBA Math Hoops program will extend beyond a half million participants served directly by the end of 2022. 

Last year, we developed the NBA Math Hoops digital game as a globally-accessible extension to the core classroom program and launched the experience in Fall 2020. Further development of this product through the end of 2021 will drastically increase our capacity to serve students with virtual programming around the world. Through the digital experience and continued community-based growth, we anticipate serving over one million students by the end of 2023.

Within Millennium Development Goal #4, Learn Fresh strives to provide students with highly engaging STEM and social-emotional learning opportunities, leading to more equitable outcomes for students of color and students from low-income communities. Our program model is adaptable to any learning environment, and has vast potential for domestic and global scale as an in-school and out-of-school time intervention. We measure progress toward our impact goals through the evaluation of key academic and social-emotional engagement metrics for participating students. We also collect and analyze family and teacher feedback on the depth and strength of our community programs, which draw real-world connections between the STEM content in our curricula and the broader world beyond students’ classrooms.

Within the U.S., there are roughly 14 million low-income students of color within our target age range, representing the primary focus for our outreach. We intend to continue scaling each of our programs through a mixture of grassroots relationship-building and targeted state, regional, and national partnerships with organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. This strategy includes a deep focus on expanding the number of team partners across the NBA, WNBA, National Basketball League (Australia), MLB, and soccer teams worldwide.

Funding is the primary barrier to achieving our program goals in the next year, and marketing represents an additional challenge. We are currently raising funds toward Phases 2-4 of NBA Math Hoops digital game development, which is designed for independent student use, family use, and/or integration into classrooms and afterschool programs. As the product is continually developed and promoted, a strong marketing operation is also essential to spurring adoption of the product within and outside of our existing program user base. 

 There are also legal barriers to achieving our program development goals. The NBA Math Hoops brand is anchored by core partnerships with the NBA/WNBA and NBPA/WNBPA through royalty-free licenses allowing us use of player likenesses and team branding. As we begin scaling other programs, similar licenses will be crucial for reproducing the format and authenticity of NBA Math Hoops. For example, we are in the process of pursuing a national partnership with the Major League Baseball Players Trust, which could herald the rapid expansion of the Math Hits program via a license granting use of player likenesses across all Math Hits program materials. We will secure comparable licenses to scale additional new programs.

Learn Fresh will begin extensive promotion of the NBA Math Hoops digital game in Fall 2021. This will include digital and social media marketing, promotion through major program events and national partnerships, and ongoing community-based marketing through our national network of education partners. A broad range of existing partners will support distribution and awareness-building, including: Afterschool Alliance, AT&T, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Girl Scouts USA, Hasbro, National Basketball Players Association, NBA/WNBA Cares, regional and local school districts, state afterschool networks, and 25+ professional team partners. A coordinated media campaign through the Elevate Prize could serve to drastically amplify the effects of this planned strategy, helping place the developed digital game in the hands of students and educators far beyond our existing organic reach. Elevated exposure and marketing will also amplify our existing fundraising efforts through increased small and mid-level donations, corporate sponsorship, and large foundation support.

Learn Fresh is led by a diverse board that is 80 percent persons of color. We are committed to maintaining a board that mirrors the communities that we serve and that embodies our commitment to achieving equitable outcomes in STEM education. This includes an explicit commitment to developing a board pipeline of corporate and nonprofit leaders, STEM professionals, educators, and athletes from the communities within which we reside. In June 2021, we are welcoming our first two athlete board members, who represent the NBA and WNBA and provide further visibility for the organization. 

Our commitment to DEI extends to our hiring strategies and practices. In order to fulfill our ambitious vision for program growth, we intend to expand the Learn Fresh team incrementally across all departments. Historically, we have hired all program staff from existing program implementation partners, drawing experienced educators directly from the communities that we serve. This strategy furthers our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, while bringing us staff who have direct experience implementing Learn Fresh programs in their communities, extensive knowledge of our curricula, and personal relationships with educators and students in our communities. The result is a majority-minority and majority-female staff composition.

Learn Fresh is led by a diverse group of experienced educators and lifelong learners. As CEO, I have remained an active educator outside of my work with Learn Fresh. My background in teaching is rooted in music education, which has provided me with a deep sense of respect for personally-relevant and culturally-relevant learning that expands traditional education. Since taking my first job in Fall 2011, I have committed my work in this space to supporting low-income communities, first in Hartford, Connecticut, and now around the world. And since the age of seven, I have learned firsthand from my stepmom about her experience as a Black and mixed-race woman growing up in the 1950s and 1960s as the daughter of Wall Street’s first African American trader. All of these experiences and learnings have built a foundational connection to the important work that we pursue every day. 

Our program staff collectively bring over 100 years experience living and teaching in the communities that we serve. Close relationships with program educators, as well as formal systems of educator feedback, ensure that our programs are uniquely tailored to serve students and educators in the most efficient, supportive, and impactful ways possible.

Our organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates a rapid and effective response and mobilization of resources in the face of a crisis that upended the education landscape. We were forced to shut down all in-person Learn Fresh programming and pivot our delivery, switching from in-school and afterschool programming to supporting students, families, and educators in need of in-home and digital learning tools. From March through early May of 2020, we raised over $125,000 to equip over 5,000 families across 47 states with the physical NBA Math Hoops board game in their homes. Working in partnership with NBA team partners, we launched the 2020 NBA Math Hoops National Championship Presented by Clorox, a virtual, March Madness-style NBA Math Hoops tournament that featured matches via Zoom for 64 student teams from across the country. Over $600,000 in funding from AT&T, Hasbro, Intel, and the Walton Family Foundation spurred development of our NBA Math Hoops digital experiences, which have since evolved into comprehensive K-8 learning tools available globally at no cost. Additionally, we partnered with the NBA and State Farm last summer to distribute over $400,000 in funding for technology and STEM program upgrades for schools nationwide.

An NBA Math Hoops Story: youtube.com/watch?v=OLixu-40swkk

2020 NBA Math Hoops Program Preview: youtube.com/watch?v=4gAfq6Owdn4

Detroit Heart: Math Hoops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br0lyMOHQGk

Funding would specifically support two Learn Fresh projects:

1. Digital development of Phases 2-4 of the NBA Math Hoops digital game, which addresses a need for high-quality digital math intervention tools for educators, families, and students in grades 3-8. It allows students to play the fully functional game both individually and against other students online in a standard web browser, as well as in a mobile app form. The digital game translates the core NBA Math Hoops program activity into the virtual environment, allowing students anywhere in the world to participate in the program without physical program materials, thereby reducing barriers to access and expanding our capacity to scale the program.

2. Development of a new Learn Fresh STEAM program in the entertainment space: EcoTour is a multidisciplinary, project-based digital learning experience that engages middle and high school students in planning a national tour for their favorite musical artist. Through EcoTour, students develop financial and environmental literacy and key social-emotional competencies like teamwork, leadership, and self-confidence. The EcoTour experience allows students to navigate their role and practical opportunities for action against the climate challenge, while addressing essential connections to business, financial management, and team building.

Learn Fresh programming is supported by core partnerships with Hasbro, the NBA/WNBA and NBPA/WNBPA, and Getty Images. Hasbro produces all NBA Math Hoops board games as an in-kind donation, supplemented by additional cash funding. The NBA/WNBA and NBPA/WNBPA provide licenses granting us use of player and team likenesses and branding, supplemented by additional cash funding and corporate sponsorships. Getty Images provides a substantial royalty-free license granting use of photos for all Learn Fresh program materials.

We currently implement Learn Fresh programming in partnership with 25 individual teams across the NBA, WNBA, MLB, and National Basketball League (Australia). Our implementation partners include hundreds of local education providers nationwide, ranging from major urban school districts to state afterschool networks, Boys & Girls Clubs, charter school networks, city parks and recreation departments, and community organizations. These partners assist with engaging educators and facilitating programming in classrooms and out-of-school time environments through our core community program model.